A blog for the Alexandria, Virginia, Chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society.

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Looking Back on the August
20th Chapter Meeting

There
was a huge crowd at this late-summer meeting – chapter musical leaders were
thrilled with the turn out.And more
than once, chapter leaders expressed appreciation to the members for stepping
up to the plate for the many fall events we have on our calendar for the rest
of 2013 and 2014.

There
were several men back to sing that have been gone for a while with college
work, job changes and family matters and director Joe Cerutti gladly welcomed them (Dave Kohls, Jeremy Knobel, Tom Griffith, Ian Poulin and Pookie Dingle).

Chuck McKeever has begun his 6 pm sessions on the stage again on Tuesday
nites to teach new members the stage moves for the contest package.There are a number of men who will be on the
stage with us for the first time. AND we have two Open Audition nites coming up
that will likely bring us a few more guys who wanna sing on the risers with us.

Assistant
director Will Cox did the warm ups
for this week. And then we launched into work for the Dog Days appearance next
Tuesday nite, August 27th.This is a long-standing tradition where the Manassas Chapter hosts a
gathering of choruses from the local area to get together in the dog-days of
summer.Each chorus sings a few songs, perhaps
brings a quartet to sing, and leads some tag singing between choruses.

The
Harmonizers will appear last, but it is wise to get there by 7 pm, if you can,
to show support for the other choruses. The event is in the air conditioned
Sacred Heart Catholic Church, 12975 Purcell Rd., Manassas VA 20112.Chorus will wear the black camp shirt with
jeans. All recent guests and members and
families are invited. Greg Tepe is
producer of this show appearance. The host chapter provides refreshments and
dress is casual for non-singers.

After
working on those show songs, associate director Tony Colosimo did another effective barbershop craft session to
further expand on the craft maxims we have been given.

And
then we worked on some spots in the contest songs.It was fun to share this with all the many
guests and new members who quickly learned how to “dodge” the moving forces on
the risers during the uptune!

Operations
vp Bob Rhome conducted the weekly
chapter meeting.President Alan Wile started things off with his
appreciative remarks for all the men who have stepped up, changed their plans
and made it work to sing at the district convention and contest.Our appearance will be on Friday evening,
after the first round of the quartet contest ends.

Alan also reported that Dick
Hall had called to report that Carolyn
had fallen inside their home. She is up and around but taking it slow and easy.
Take care, friend!

Alan also reported that Bob
Mattes had eye surgery and had some challenging recovery times.

Chuck Harner spoke to us in his position as chairman of the chapter’s
host committee for the contest weekend in Ocean City.He had sign-up sheets for us to sign in order
to cover all the tasks needed that weekend.

Bob Rhome answered questions about registration fees and requirements
– and he sent an email after chapter with details.

Assistant
director Terry Reynolds suggested
that chorus call time in Ocean City on Oct. 4th will be about 6:30
pm. The planning team is making arrangements for a warm up room, etc.Also there will be announcements about
housing choices too.Terry also suggested that the goal is
to have all singers attend all September rehearsals and the extra contest
rehearsal on Thursday, Sept. 26th.Anyone planning to sing Oct. 4, who did not sing with the chorus in
Toronto, should speak with Terry
ASAP.His email is Terry.reynolds4@gmail.com for new members and guests who want to push it and sing
with us.

Show
producer Greg Tepe alerted the
chorus of a dessert show job on Sept. 14th in downtown DC. Again,
there will be an email follow up for participation.

Ian Poulin solicited helpers for the NO BORDERS CHORUS event at
Carnegie Hall on Dec. 26th.Workers are needed on-site, in advance from your home, or participants
who can help that day.This is the third
such event for young men with Joe
Cerutti as director and some of our members as the support team.

Chapter
secretary Chris Buechler presented
membership renewal cards to Ian Poulin
for 10 years, Tom Griffith for 26
years, Alan Wile for 32 years, John Santora for 36 years, and Carl Kauffmann for 41 years.Elliot
Roseman is a new member who was given some of his joining materials.Lou
Bergner got his membership renewal card for 8 years (and cards for all the
other chapters he belongs to in Canada!)

Membership
vp MarkKlostermeyer, with help from KenWhite, welcomed a lot
of guests again this week which included family members of members, local
musicians including the director of the Alexandria Band; several applicants for
membership; a couple first-timer guests and members/directors from other area
barbershop chapters.

Bob Rhome invited all to break with directions to return for
rehearsal of the wedding songs for Joe and Bridgette’s ceremony this
weekend.After that we rushed to load
risers onto the Harmo truck for the weekend.

A
good crowd made it to the afterglow at La Porta’s and some got in a few tags
before they headed home.

Until next time –
editorjack!

(This message is
prepared for your review if you were there, for your information if you had to
miss, and as a historical record of the great things going on each week during
the 65th year of the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —YeEd.)